Relationship between parental stress and linguistic skills in children with asd

Abstract

The objectives of this study were: 1) Compare the perceived parental stress between a group of parents of children with ASD and a group of parents of children with typical development. The rest of the objectives are focused on the analysis of the ASD group. 2) Compare the perceived parental stress between the parents of the ASD children with language and the parents of the ASD children without language. 3) Analyze the relationship between the perceived parental stress and the child’s receptive linguistic skills. 4) Analyze the relationship between the perceived parental stress and the child’s expressive linguistic skills. The Parenting Stress Index scale (the child domain) was used to evaluate the parental stress. The main results obtained were: 1) Parental stress in the parents of ASD children was higher than in the parents of the children with typical development. 2) There was no significant difference on the perceived parental stress between the parents of ASD children with and without language. 3) Parental stress showed a statistically significant relation with some of the evaluated variables, both receptive and expressive language. Thus, the child’ limitations on language skills were linked to a higher parental stress in the child domain, particularly the one obtained in the Acceptability subscale, relative to the parental expectations about the child’s capacities. This result is discussed in the context of the importance that our culture gives to the achievement motivation and the possible connection of this with parental stress.

Keywords

• trastorno del espectro autista
• estrés parental
• lenguaje expresivo
• lenguaje receptivo